America Runs on Dunkin'
by Whoa-em-gee bro
Summary: Desperate times call for desperate measures..


**America Runs on Dunkin' (Except for When It's Starbucks)**

"The usual please," Annie Walker yawned, a large pair of white sunglasses over her closed eyes. It was Monday morning, and it sucked. She was tired, sore, and hadn't even bothered to put on makeup that day. She hadn't bothered to do a lot of things in fact. Like, for example, realize that the long haired barista had no idea what her regular was. "Are you going to say 'That'll be $10.98,' or what, Beckyyyy- you're not Becky."

"Uh, no I'm not," the non-Becky agreed, pulling her red hair behind her ear. She pointed at her name tag, which read Rachael, and said, "I'm new. Becky came by this morning just to explain everything and then left. Some kind of family emergency, I guess."

Becky, like most of the in-house vendors at the Clandestine Service Department, used to work for the Agency. Family emergencies for an operative, active or retired, usually meant one of two things: someone found them out, or a new urgent mission required their presence. Neither was ever a good thing. Whatever Becky was into, Annie wished her the best of luck.

"Oh," Annie responded. "Well for future reference, I always order a Venti Iced Mocha Frappuccino, a Venti Iced Chai Latte, a blueberry muffin, and a cranberry-orange scone. Which, by the way, costs $10.98."

"Yeah, well you see, I'd love to give you your order, but well there's a problem with that," Rachael started.

"Problem?"

"The coffee machines won't work. The power went out last night and it screwed them up, and I don't know what to do.. Like at all."

Annie groaned. _God, I hate Mondays_. "Okay, then I guess I'll just take the pastries."

"Yeah, well, um.. You see we sell out of most pastries daily, so I'm supposed to bake them. And I don't know how to do that either sooo... Sorry?"

Annie stared at the young woman behind the counter. "You've never worked in this building before, have you?"

"No."

The blond woman sighed and nodded a little. She opened her mouth to say something more, but ultimately decided against it, and walked away. She entered the elevator across the food court, grimaced at a 7th floor guy, and then hit the appropriate button for herself. After a few minutes, the elevator dinged signifying her arrival. She stepped into the relatively empty DPD bullpen. She headed over to her desk to make sure she wasn't missing any meetings. Once she was satisfyed, she made her way over to tech ops to chat up her best friend.

Auggie heard the door to his office slide open, and a light whiff of grapefruit tickled his nose. He stretched in his seat before pulling off his headphones and turning his chair to face her. A small smile played on his lips as he spoke. "Good morning, Annie."

She placed her sunglasses onto her head and sighed, "Is it?"

He opened his mouth to reply, but stopped when he realized something. His brow crinkled, and he tilted his head. Something was horribly wrong here. "Maybe not. Why do I not smell coffee? Did someone neglect their morning java duties?"

"Not purposely," Annie answered, leaning against the desk. "Apparently their was a power outage last night. It reset all of Starbucks' machinery. And since the barista just started there, she has no idea how to get it off the default settings," she paused. "In fact, I don't think Becky even told her how to turn anything on, let alone how to actually make a decent cup o' Joe."

"Or in my case, a decent cup of tea," Auggie added. "Where is Becky, anyways?"

"According to the new girl, family emergency."

He winced visibly. He'd had a few 'family emergencies' back when he was active in the field. One 'family emergency' moved him to a new house with the temporary identity of Fabio Fumagalli. Another shipped him off to Malaysia where he ended up locked in a public restroom with a Hindu extremist. Also, if memory served him correctly, a 'family emergency' is what sent him off on the mission that eventually took his sight. Yeah, those weren't fun times. "That's never good," Auggie noted. "So how long do you think it'll be before there's coffee?"

"From the Starbucks downstairs? Probably never."

"Well if we're not getting it from Starbucks, where are we supposed to get it?"

Annie thought for a moment. There was one other place to get coffee inside the building. "Our only option is the employee lounge on the third floor."

Auggie's face whipped up in shock. "You know I never go to the third floor for anything," he started. A look of disgust colored his handsome features. "Especially not for coffee."

"Or in your case, tea," Annie smirked.

"Exactly."

"Well I'm sorry to tell you this, but that's the only way we're getting caffeinated before lunch."

The blind man dropped his head into his folded arms. "Noooooo," he moaned. Suddenly his head popped back up, an assured look on his face. "With a blueberry muffin, that coffee won't taste so bad."

"Yeah, I thought that too. All they have are bagels and a butter croissant."

He was silent for a moment, trying to find something, anything, that could make this all okay. He needed to hold on to what little hope he had. ".. Is it at least a good bagel?"

"Asiago, Hawaiian, or plain."

"Nooooooooo," he repeated, getting a laugh out of his friend. "Well I'm glad someone can enjoy my pain and suffering," his slightly muffled voice said.

She laughed again, reaching out to pat his arm. "It'll be okay, Aug. There's more to life than caffeine and blueberries."

"Yeah, but not much more," the blind tech retorted as he stood up. "Come on, let's go."

"Go where? The third floor? You know I was kidding about that, right? I'll for go the coffee," Annie said. "Besides, I don't think that stuff really is coffee."

"I am 96.4% sure it's not coffee. Which is one of the many reasons why I will never set foot in that department again."

"96.4?" she asked, amused.

"You know, 63% of all statistics are made up on the spot," he grinned as he reached for his laser cane. "Now, are you coming or what?"

"Where are we going?"

"Were going to figure out how to fix the coffee machine, of course."

She looked at him, trying to get a read off the gleam in his unseeing eyes. "You're not serious."

"Au contraire, Ms. Walker. I am very serious."

"Well how do you plan on fixing the machines?"

"Oh, Annie. Anythings possible if you just believe in Google. Now hurry, before I'm forced to assess intel on a terrorist cell."

"Or before I'm forced to cultivate an asset in Thailand."

And that's how Annie Walker and Auggie Anderson went from CIA operatives to Starbucks baristas in under an hour.

**Yeah that's not what was supposed to happen at all... It was supposed to end up being kind of angsty, and I totally got carried away haha. Dang it, now I can't use my original idea when I actually write what I wanted to. Well hope it wasn't too bad. The ending didn't really work, but whatev :D **


End file.
